Micha Ullman
Encyclopedia
Micha Ullman is an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i sculptor and professor of art.

Biography

Micha Ulman was born in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 to German Jews who immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933. As a teenager, he attended the Kfar HaYarok agricultural school.
In 1960-1964, he studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri , who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle ....

 in Jerusalem. In 1965, he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...

 in London, where he learned etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

.

Ullman is married to Mira, and lives in Ramat Hasharon
Ramat Hasharon
Ramat HaSharon is a city located on Israel's central coastal strip in the south of the Sharon region, bordering Tel Aviv to the south and Herzliya and Kibbutz Glil Yam to the north. It is part of the Tel Aviv District, within Gush Dan metropolitan area...

, Israel.

Academic career

He taught at Bezalel Academy in 1970 - 1978. He became a visiting professor at Academy of Arts Düsseldorf in 1976. He taught at the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....

 from 1979 - 1989. He was appointed Professor of Sculpture at State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart in 1991.

Artistic career

Ullman created the underground “Bibliotek” memorial on Bebelplatz
Bebelplatz
The Bebelplatz is a public square in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany.The square is located on the south side of the Unter den Linden boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare in the city centre...

 square in Berlin, where the Nazi book burnings
Nazi book burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...

 began in 1933. The memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza, under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible. A bronze plaque bears a quote by Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

: “Where books are burned in the end people will burn.” This memorial was inaugurated in May 1995. (see book burning
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...

). Ullman explains: "It begins with the void that exists in every pit and will not disappear. You could say that emptiness is a state, a situation formed by the sides of the pit: The deeper it is, the more sky there will be and the greater the void. In the library containing the missing books, that void is more palpable. We expect [the books] but they are not there."

In 1997, Ullman completed a synagogue memorial in collaboration with Zvi Hecker
Zvi Hecker
Zvi Hecker is a Polish-born Israeli architect. His work is known for its emphasis on geometry and asymmetry.-Biography:Zvi Hecker was born on May 31, 1931 in Krakow, Poland. He grew up in Poland and Samarkand. He began his education in architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. He...

 and Eyal Weizmann, commemorating the former Lindenstraße synagogue in Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...

.

Another of his creations is "Hochwasser" ("Flooding") on a small island near the Werra River in Germany. It was inspired by a boat Ullman saw there with a sign on it stating it had a capacity of up to seven passengers. Ullman's father, Yitzhak, who had lived nearby, immigrated to Palestine with his seven siblings in 1933.

Sculptural style

Ullman creates subterranean sculptures, some of which barely protrude from the ground. They touch on universal themes such as the meaning of place and home, absence and emptiness. They have been described as simultaneously "celestial and earthbound, metaphysical but sensual and tactile.

Education

  • 1960-1964 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy, Jerusalem
  • 1965 Central School of Arts and Crafts, London

Teaching

  • 1970-1978 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, drawing, basic design and etching
  • 1976 Guest lecturer at Fine Arts Academy, Dusseldorf
  • 1979 Haifa University, basic design, drawing, three dimensional design
  • 1979-1985 Faculty of Architecture, Technion, Haifa
  • 1991 Academy of Art, Stuttgart, sculpture

Awards and Prizes

  • 1963 Sonborn Prize, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem
  • 1972 The Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 1980 The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 1985 Mendel Pundik Prize, Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

     Museum
  • 1989 Annual Scholarship, DAAD, Berlin
  • 1995 Kate Kollwitz Prize, Art Academy, Berlin
  • 1996 Zussman Prize, Yad Vashem
  • 1996 - חבר באקדמיה הגרמנית לאמנויות, ברלין, גרמניה
  • 1997 - פרס החברה לתרבות ולשלום בינלאומי, עמאן, ירדן.
  • 1998 - פרס ירין, קרן התרבות אמריקה-ישראל.
  • 2000 Gamzu Prize and Aftovitzer Fund, Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

     Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

  • 2004 Awarded Honorary Ph.D, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

• 2005 - פרס תומא, באדן ויטמברג, ברנאו, גרמניה
  • 2009 Israel Prize for Sculpture

Outdoor and Public Art

  • 1983 Sky, limestone, Tel Hai, Israel
  • 1984 Ben Hinnom Valley, iron and cable, Jerusalem
  • 1984 Lot's Wife, earth, Mt. Sodom, Israel
  • 1989 Jesod (Foundation), cement and sand, Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

  • 1991 Schodnia (East), asphalt, Lodz, Poland
  • 1992 Sea Level, cast iron, sandstone and glass, 22 Allenby St., Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv
    Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

  • 1992 Niemand, corten steel and red loam, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
  • 1995 Bibliothek, cement and glass, Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany
  • 1996-1997 Water, Zion Square, West Jerusalem and Freres Street, East Jerusalem

External links

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